Do you prefer cutscenes or Half-Life style realtime narrative? The debate has gone on for quite a few years now, with some people preferring to sit back and watch their stories unfold, while others believe cutscenes are outdated and want everything to unfold as they play. We asked THQ which direction Metro 2033 will be going in.
"For the most part the storyline is delivered to the player through gameplay, dialog, visuals," explains creative manager David Langeliers. "There are some moments where cut scenes are used, and we also use some narration on the loading screens to help the story along. This not only allowed us to deliver some key storyline elements that would have otherwise seemed forced or awkward in-game, but also gives the player a reason to stay interested during loads."
Metro 2033 will be using both forms of storytelling, but which is the best?: "That’s a difficult question! I will say that I’m a HUGE fan of the Half-Life series, and there is certainly no denying how powerful it can be to have the camera remain in the protagonists view-point throughout.
"At the same time, it also makes certain aspects of design very difficult," he continues. "For example, you don’t want to spend months creating a big moment, only to have a percentage of your players miss it while looking the other way. This requires a lot of player handholding and a carefully thought through level design.
"I think both have their place in the end, depending on what your focus is. You have full player immersion on the one hand and carefully crafted cinematography that can convey a very specific emotion or thought on the other. In Metro 2033, we have a balance between both styles."
So, whether you like cutscenes or realtime stories, Metro 2033 will have you covered. Awesome!
Contest:
12:40 PM on 01.26.2010
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The entire game was in first person, I loved the hell out of that. Even cutscene bits were in FP, including the first person vomiting. I'd like to see more of that.
I love Half-Life's and Modern Warfare's methods as much as Mass Effect's and Halo's.
In fact they seamlessly integrated these elements in MW2... one minute you're shooting and then down (and you think "hey wait I don't think I got shot")... and then you realize you're actually in a cut scene. The cut scene is usually very short to progress the story and you're seamlessly back in play again.
I think that many devs can learn from MW2 from the way they used cutscenes.
I think could you imaging playing any MGS game with NO cutscenes at all? The story is confusing enough WITH the cutscenes trying to explain the story. Cutscenes are here to stay in my opinion.
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Valve solved this problem by letting you play the game you wanted to play... as opposed to forcing you to play it their way. If you miss this big event... well, that is ok. It is your experience.
-Take notes.
I want it to be good.
I liked the ambition of HL2 storytelling though it proved itself far too shallow and naive; Bioshock remedied many of Valve's shortcomings - of course it was able to, as Kira Plaga said - but also built some new obstacles of it's own; MW2 delegates the majority of it's storytelling to epileptic cut-scenes, it's real-time narrative was handled much more masterly than Bioshock or HL2, Elsa goes to show, but by and large the real-time narrative only dealt with Hollywood-style set-pieces so it can hardly be credited with one-upping cutscenes.
But I think Felipe misspoke when he said real-time requires over-the-top game design. Rather what it needs is a constant awareness of it's own capabilities and limitation and the entire game needs to accomodate these boundaries, ultimately resulting in a bottom-up construction of game design to the point where the game is based around these limiting forces. Sure, it goes to prove the skill of the developers but similarly it hinders the creative process: the game becomes the product of an idea, an imitation, and not the idea. Maybe even the idea is secondary, and this I can't stand.
Cutscenes have their powerful flaws too, yes indeedy, but I can't bear to hear people acting like realtime is the next messiah, as if cutscenes are the criminal Barabbas.
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